Dynamics of informal occupation and local resilience strategies in risk-prone areas of Bukavu

The city of Bukavu, located in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, faces numerous urban planning challenges linked to rapid and largely unplanned urbanization. Driven by the city’s rapid demographic growth since the 1990s, due to population movements associated with armed conflicts, this dynamic leads to the gradual occupation of ecologically vulnerable areas (unstable slopes, riverbanks, and drainage channels). As a result, residents are exposed to recurring risks of flooding, landslides, and waterborne diseases. Using a qualitative methodology combining document analysis, field observations, and 41 semi-structured interviews, this study examines the dynamics of informal settlement around the Luziba collector and the local resilience strategies developed to “live with water”. The findings show that this settlement is primarily driven by socio-economic constraints, land pressure, the search for proximity to urban centralities, and the lack of accessible residential alternatives. Exacerbated by population movements linked to conflict, this dynamic reduces the hydraulic capacity of the Luziba collector and increases the intensity of flooding. In response to these risks, residents develop individual and collective resilience strategies, such as building on stilts, raising the entrances of dwellings, constructing protective walls, desilting the collector, and community mutual aid, to live with water. However, although these practices are grounded in local knowledge, they remain limited in both effectiveness and scope. The study therefore highlights the need to recognize flooding risk as a socio-spatial construction and to integrate local resilience dynamics into contextualized urban planning approaches, in order to reduce the gap between formal planning and the realities of informal settlements in rapidly growing African cities.